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Hilda
Hilda (ヒルダ Hiruda) was the fiancee of Cyborg 004, back in his pre-Black Ghost life when he was simply Albert Heinrich. Although a vague character in regards to her backstory and personality, the impact her death had on him resonates throughout the manga and various adaptations. Appearance Hilda's look is known to be subject to variation throughout the times her death is referenced, with her usually being a slender woman with short, light-colored hair. In the original "Birth" arc chapter, she appears with a bowlcut hair style (colored blonde in the '70s Kodansha full-color edition), and she wears a sleeveless shirt and pinstripe pants. However, in a later flashback to her death in the "Aztec" arc, she is depicted wearing some sort of unitard, and her hair is depicted as being much longer. The 1979 anime references the initial design, although her hair is slightly longer in back and colored blonde, and she has green eyes. However, Toyoo Ashida's early depiction of the origin in the March 1979 Animage magazine depicted her with light brown hair. In 1980's film "Legend of the Super Galaxy", she was redesigned to have long, dark brown hair pulled back into a high ponytail, and she wore a long coat. Due to the sepia filter of the flashback scene, it is difficult to tell her full color scheme, along with the fact that most concept art of the design is uncolored or monochromatic. In the 2001 "Cyborg Soldier" series, Hilda has short red hair, and wears a long khaki coat with oversized buttons over a dark top. As with the 1979 incarnation, her eyes are depicted green. With the OVA Cyborg 009 vs. Devilman, the illusionary Hilda that appears shows her to wear a pink top and necklace, while her hair is short and light brown and her eyes are blue. Her designs as seen in Masato Hayase's art in "Conclusion GOD'S WAR" and Marcus To's art for the Archaia graphic novel favor her classic manga design with the short hair, along with the shirt and pants. She is also seen in this fashion in the 2000 development trailer for "Cyborg Soldier" by Naoyuki Konno, while oddly the opening sequence for the series depicts yet another take on her fashion and death scene, with her wearing a long yellow sweater and red skirt. Personality Little is really glimpsed about Hilda's personality, although she at first seemed uncertain about her fiance's idea in getting over to West Berlin. However, she then seemed confident enough that they'd surely make it out, after Albert assured her that the lion disguise would work. In the flashback in Super Galaxy, she seemed willing to ride right along in the passenger's seat of the truck, and could be seen crying out and clutching Albert in fear when they were being shot at. In the 2001 adaptation, she manages to pass on some final words Albert before she dies, believing that they made it out of the border and expressing to him that they can now be free. History Albert and Hilda had planned to escape East Berlin in hopes of getting to the West and being able to live a happier life. Unfortunately, their escape attempt was soon discovered by the Berlin wall guards, and their vehicle was fired upon. The details of this vary depending on the adaptation, with the truck either having a large animal cage in back, being a standard long-haul truck design, or being a truck with a covered wagon-style back. Hilda was also either shown to be disguised as a lioness (or lion, in the 1979 telling), is in the passenger side (Super Galaxy), or was hiding in the back with cargo (Cyborg Soldier). Additionally, depending on the telling, she was either directly hit by the gunfire or died as a result of the ensuing crash, leaving Albert to discover her dead body and faint from a combination of his grief and own injuries, although some adaptations remove any visible wounds from their bodies. Hilda only gets further mention in the manga via Albert flashing back to her death twice, once in "The Underground Empire of Yomi" and then later in "Aztec", when the electromagnetic waves from a mysterious device hit him and force him to relive the trauma. In "The People Drifting Between Space and Time", the mysterious girl that Albert meets in Pompeii reminds him of Hilda for some reason, causing him to become very protective over her. In adaptations where all 00 team members have contemporary origins, the circumstances of Hilda's death can be much more vague. For instance, in the 2013 Archaia graphic novel, all that is known is that Albert had attempted to smuggle her into Germany via an airplane so that they could be married, and that he'd "failed". The airplane is depicted having crashed or been shot down, with Albert holding Hilda's corpse in despair. In the first light novel of Joe Onodera's version of "Conclusion GOD'S WAR", Albert and Hilda were described as living in poverty and having responded to a job advertisement in hopes of Albert finding a trucking job that could pay better. After realizing that it was a trap, they attempted to escape, but Hilda was shot to death by the Black Ghost men, while Albert was left extremely injured and was dragged away for remodeling. Her death haunts Albert to an extent in all adaptations. In Super Galaxy, he confesses that he wished he could have died with her that very day. In Cyborg Soldier's fifth episode "Tears of Steel", he is shown to hold her engagement ring around a chain on his neck as a memento, and it is pivotal to helping him use his Super Gun in a paralyzed state to defeat 0011. At the end, it's implied he threw the ring away into the ocean. The Cyborg 009 vs. Devilman OVA also briefly utilizes her, via an illusion cast by a demon named Lilith in an attempt to weaken and slaughter Albert (to convert him to her side). Albert is quickly able to see through the false Hilda, pointing out that "Hilda is dead", and he warns the other male 00 cyborgs of the trap. Gallery Notes * The Tokyopop translation of the manga most notably contains an inexplicable alteration to the text of Albert's flashback to Hilda in "The Underground Empire of Yomi", which conflicts with what's already known and which could be erroneously seen as Ishinomori retconning the original if readers weren't aware of the original text. In Tokyopop's translation for Yomi, Albert claims that Dr. Gilmore contacted him after Hilda's death, and that his heart was already cold but that the Black Ghost men "helped the rest of him along", implying that Albert willingly gave up his humanity. In the original text, Albert says there was a call for Dr. Gilmore, and that the men took him away to some laboratory, but "didn't help him at all". * The English dub of the 2001 anime adaptation refers to Hilda as being Albert's wife, as opposed to fiancee. This leads to credits and fanworks produced around the time referring to her as "Hilda Heinrich". * In the original manga, Hilda only ever refers to her fiance as "Heinrich". This could be due to Ishinomori not setting the character's full name yet, as evidenced by early settings only having "Heinrich" as a potential given name. By September 1965, his name would be "Albert Heinrich". In anime adaptations, Hilda thus refers to her fiance as "Albert". Category:Female characters Category:Deceased Characters Category:Humans